a moment of clarity

World PvP

Here’s the second of the “I fucked up and need to L2post” posts.! If you read it the first time, that was a draft, there were a few tweaks.

It’s dead, I know.

But I had a thought, are sanctuary cities to blame?

Have we, even on PvP servers, become so used to rubbing elbows with the opposite faction that our instinct for red is dead has atrophied?

I started on a PvE realm, RPPvE to be exact.

As I recall, and I could be wrong – I was a very lost little night elf warrior much of the time – there were only a handful of situations that would flag me for PvP on that realm.

If I did something stupid. It took me a long time to figure out the difference between the orc-mobs and the orc-NPCs in Ashenvale. Stupid patrol on the main road…

If I entered a battleground. And then got on the tram and got ganked by a rogue…

If I got to close to an enemy city. Like trying to get the map to bwom on Undercity…

Tangent!

I can hear you now: WTF is bwom?

Bwom – to claim or uncover territory on a map.

Origin – Dungeon Keeper. As your imps claim territory they made a noise very much like “bwom.” Ever since then I have associated the noise with any uncovering of new terrain on a map or claiming of territory, all through StarCraft and now WoW. Yes, I even say “bwom” when the map uncovers a new area.

So most of my early career in WoW I had free reign of the land, I didn’t touch them and they couldn’t touch me. Just like a sanctuary city.

In fact, I had very little desire to engage in world PvP. Red is dead was limited to mobs.

Then I joined a PvP realm.

PvP lurked around every corner, usually in the form of a level 70 that felt I would be better off corpse running instead of fishing.

StarCraft had given me a very bad taste for PvP so I spent a lot of time shying away from it.

But I gradually warmed up to it and happily would kill someone for being in the wrong place and fully expected the same in return.

Then I got to Shattrath.

Look at all the Alliance and I can’t kill any of them!

Hell, some of them are up on the Scryers Tier.

Opposite faction… in my inn… brain malfunction…

I got used to seeing them up close and personal without having to be ready to launch an offensive or strategically retreat.

That started to carry over into the zones outside the city.

I was more inclined to leave people alone and was surprised when the courtesy wasn’t extended to me.

Then came Dalaran.

Even more close quarters with the opposing faction.

At least this time we have our own faction space.

But again, I find it reinforced that Alliance aren’t really targets.

Argent Tournament Grounds?

Same thing.

Meh.

Alliance.

Can’t touch ’em. Don’t care.

But when I was back in old world working on quests for the Loremaster achievement.

I wasn’t even returning to Dalaran most nights unless I’m raiding the next night.

I found the old spark of the killing urge welling up inside me.

There is no sanctuary here.

When I touched down at the Crossroads I waited a bit before heading out. This allowed me to finish my Peggle game and see if there’s any action.

I saw a fellow Horde, very low level, getting chased by a tree guardian thing in Ashenvale.

I was immediately off my mount and slinging spells. Then it was right back on the mount and patrolling the area to make sure there were no Alliance players that might have been after him.

I found myself edging closer and closer to Alliance towns, as if I’m subconsciously spoiling for a fight.

It’s a shame I’ve already done all the quests out of Tarren Mill. I must remember to go tear that place up before the expansion hits and the Alliance lose it.

I’ve noticed something similar on my little priest. Since he’s running with a hunter that has some serious PvP leanings we embrace red is dead and will take on Alliance players that probably think we’re bat shit crazy. But I did get a killing blow on a DK. Before I was level 33. /flex

And the DK I just rolled on a PvE server because my battlegroup was down? ZOMG. Never before have I wanted to gank so much. He’s right there… and I can’t touch him… gaaaaah! Quit picking my herbs! I only rolled on this server to meet some people. I’ve noticed that a lot of the people I want to eventually roll toons to meet are on PvE servers…

Anyway, sanctuary cities are most likely here to stay.

It would take a major effort to remove them and I can’t really see why they would go through the trouble.

But if they were to be removed, do you think we would see more world PvP?

Even with sanctuary cities, can we reclaim our faction pride, especially in light of the changes coming to the Horde?

Thrall would want us to lay our differences aside and work towards the common good of all of Azeroth and Tirion Fordring is trying to pull everyone together, but we’re about to have our faction leaders at each other’s throats.

Varian’s got a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Hyjal and Garrosh doesn’t know the meaning of restraint.

Will it be enough to stir the hearts of the players and revive world PvP?

I doubt it will, but it would be exciting!

And can anyone explain to me why people that want to PvP roll on PvE realms and people that don’t want to PvP roll on PvP realms?

I know in my guild our circumstances were a little unusual.

We were picking a realm to all roll on at the same time.

One of the guys said if we rolled on a carebear server he wouldn’t play. We were expecting him to be one of the core members of the guild so we went PvP.

Then he doesn’t even hardly play on our server (too busy raiding on another at first) and has now gotten so busy with school that he’s not playing at all.

So in our group, we have several people that would have much rather have been on a PvE server but weren’t really given much of a choice.

But what about the people that randomly pick a realm, the ones that aren’t rolling on a realm to join friends? Why go PvP if you don’t like it?

I was in Hellfire mining on my priest the other night.

Some poor Alliance guy was trying to take the towers.

There were level-appropriate Horde in the area that were having none of that.

Guy disappears.

Level 58 DK gets to the zone.

“Would you assholes knock it off, I’m trying to get my marks for the quest!”

(Yes, we can roll cross-faction on the same PvP servers.)

The conversation that followed was sad.

If you’re trying to convince a group of people to not kill you, calling them all “fucking 70-year-old virgins” is probably NOT the best tactic.

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11 comments on “World PvP”

I had a situation last night Soth was helping my druid out by doing amphitheater of anguish. A 80 nelf hunter decided i would be an easy target even though in the area were Soth, and about 3 other lvl 80s. after the hunter killed me once in the amp, and then twice in zeb’torga i got annoyed and swap over to the finggnome (yes that’s my gnomes name) and whispered him. I whispered him to find out was it random world pvp or did i do something to him? im cool with either one fyi although i much prefer retaliatory killings. ends up he thought i was with the other group of hordies who had killed him a bunch and being as i was only level 76 i was an easy target. I did kill him though with a typhoon which knocked him off his mount causing him to plummet to his death.

“I’ve noticed something similar on my little priest. Since he’s running with a hunter that has some serious PvP leanings we embrace red is dead and will take on Alliance players that probably think we’re bat shit crazy.”

There is something about Hunters thats make me want to PVP. I think it goes back to my days of leveling in STV and UN’Goro before Wrath. The ability to track my opponents might be a slight factor also. Or and this is just a guess i could be bat shit crazy

I’ve only been on 2 servers first was Mal’ganis one of the first. I got tired of the 1-2hr wait to just log in. Back then if we were raiding and got DC’d guess what…everyone has to wait, then they changed it a little to where you have like 10-15 mins to log back in and you didn’t have to wait on the que. On Mal’ganis there was crazy PvP. The only time I remember not getting ganked or not ganking was when BC launched, it’s like everyone was given a couple week break to hit 70 then it was on again.

Now when I’m not in Iraq I play on azshara and it was the same. Wrath hit. People gave you time to level which wasn’t a big deal for me since I missed being the first 80 Mage by 5 hrs…then back to ganking. I’m a nice guy though I don’t just go out to gank but if the opportunity is there well let’s do it.

How it all becomes my fault that everyone is on a pvp server I’ll never know, but if it is I’m glad i could get you started where you should always have been in the first place =p Ok time to study some more LSAT in 2 days and counting.

Leveling my characters was painful when I didn’t have my friend questing with me. After LK dropped and people got coldweather flying it was constant camping if you even went near an herb or node.

I now have 2 toons that I arena with, but with all the battlegroup changes (queueing for bg’s and arenas) it’s almost pointless to roll new characters on a pvp server…unless you already have friends or other toons there.

First of all this post full of win. Dungeon Keeper was one of my favorite games back in the day. Second I love World PvP. Even though as a mage I suck at it. I started back in the days when there were no BG’s, no Arenas…there was only the crossroads, and Southshore/Tarren Mill battles.

I miss those days. These days I am the lone Mage standing outside Tarren Mill waiting for the Horde to challenge me.

I have Horde friends via being a moderator for almost a year on the server’s public ventrilo.

I die nearly every day, on all my available toons I log onto, to horde shenanigans. Sometimes, if it’s dailies I’m attempting to do, several times in the time-span of an hour or so. >.< It's frustrating, but I didn't know the difference between PvP and PvE when I started playing WoW. Then, I made too many friends to want to reroll on other servers even if my lil mage (my first toon) was below lvl30.

My mage just goes splat. :(
My priest can heal through it while running away. LOL.
My warrior beats the aggressor into a pulp.

I have always been on PvE servers and ganking seems to be the worst there. When someone finds the 1 in a million players that is flagged, it’s open day…

That said, I remember my disappointment when I infiltrated IF only to find that no matter how many Flamestrikes, Blizzards and AEs I dropped, no one even noticed my presence… They would normally let the guards deal with me to avoid the flagging… Boring